The Showing Up Action Group grew out of a weekly group that (1) studied the Twelve Steps as they applied to compulsive debting and (2) committed to specific actions with money and work. The first teleconference Meeting, then called No Matter What, occurred on January 6, 2008. In August 2010, the group changed the name to the Showing Up Action Group.
The Showing Up Commitments are a set a clear, written practices to recover from compulsive debting, including compulsive spending and earning avoidance.
The purpose of this website is to make the literature about this practice available to those who might find it useful.
Request to meetings using this material
I have requested that all meetings stop using the name Showing Up. There are two reasons for this, one practical, and one spiritual.
Firstly, as my health continues to deteriorate, I have considered how to keep the material available. Although proposed in 2019, the Steering Committee decided not to become a legal entity, and there is no legal entity which can hold the copyright. Further, at the most recent Steering Committee meeting September 8, 2024, only one of the seven service positions were filled; there is no functioning Steering Committee.
As such, there is no mechanism by which the The Showing Up Commitments (“the Pink Book”) may be changed when I am no longer here.
Secondly, there is no longer general agreement on where the boundaries of the practice lie. There are many ways to recover from compulsive debting, compulsive spending, and earning avoidance.
It may be that the practices as written are too strict. It may be that keeping service commitments through term, paying bills on or before the due date, returning library books on time, tallying monthly money and time, following written agreements, and participating in business meetings is not necessary for recovery. And this may be a better way. But this would not, as currently written, be Showing Up. Having a new name may empower those practicing differently to follow their heart.
For those who do need the practice as written, now and in the future, I have decided to leave literature on this website. Please make use of the materials. My only request is that everyone use a different name for their meetings. I am confident this group of vibrant, creative people are more than capable of coming up with compelling names.
Deep gratitude to all who have kept the Showing Up Commitments, even for one day.
Grateful Craig